More gamers than anywhere else in Europe claims new report plus Mass Effect 2 screens
Britain has more online and console gamers than anywhere else in Europe, according to the 2009 UK National Gamers Survey. A staggering 73% of those questioned regularly play games, with many ranking gaming as their favourite pastime, ahead of surfing the internet and watching TV.
Young men between the ages of 13 and 19 spend on average 11 hours per week playing games, and boys as young as eight admit to gaming seven and a half hours a week. The findings from TNS and Gamesindustry.com demonstrate that gaming could soon start to replace the internet and TV as the country's favourite pastime, and has already overtaken reading newspapers and magazines. Even the historically smaller gaming segments are getting in on the act: 86% of girls play games and an astonishing 42% of people over the age of 50 say that they spend more time gaming than reading magazines.
Despite the downturn hitting Britain harder than many of its European neighbours, Brits are also the most likely to pay for games. While 10% of gamers in the Netherlands admit to regularly making illegal copies of popular console games, only 4% of Brits do the same.
The study also reveals that mobile phones and social networks such as MySpace and Facebook are the game platforms of the future, although they are yet to properly take hold in the UK, where only 11% of the gamers on social networks indicate that these are their primary gaming destinations - less than half that of the US. In the UK, the introduction of the iPhone and other smartphones pushed the mobile telephone as a gaming platform up to 20% in the last year, double the level achieved in other European countries.
One game that young and old gamers alike are looking forward to is Mass Effect 2 - the highly anticipated sequel to the multi award-winning 2007 hit, Mass Effect. The Mass Effect trilogy is a beautifully depicted sci-fi action adventure set in a universe filled with alien life and mysterious uncharted planets. In this dark second chapter, gamers will command their crew on a suicide mission in space. Players will strategically select each member of their squad, all of whom have a direct impact on the direction of the story and the squad's chances for survival. A release is scheduled for 2010 for Xbox 360 and PC.
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